THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE
by Louise Erdrich
Hyperion
ISBN: 0786803002
Ages 9-up
192 pages
Louise Erdrich, who has won many awards for her books for adults, has written her first novel for young people. And it's a wonderful read. Just like the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder help us understand what it was like for pioneers settling the American west, Erdrich's book shows us the pioneer/settler story from the other side, through the eyes of Omakayas, a young Native American girl. Omakayas is part of the Ojibwa tribe, living with her family on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Her story of how white settlers came to the land is dramatic, entertaining, funny and sometimes heartbreaking. It's a book you'll love to explore --- and one you won't soon forget.
BUD, NOT BUDDY
by Christopher Paul Curtis
Delacorte
ISBN: 0385323069
Ages 9-12
245 pages
In this novel set during the depression, 10-year-old orphan Bud is tired of being passed from foster home to foster home. He decides to run away and find the man he believes to be his father, a jazz musician named Herman Calloway.
BUNNICULA STRIKES AGAIN!
by a James Howe
Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 0689814623
Ages 8-12
116 pages
THE LANDRY NEWS
by Andrew Clements
illustrated by Brian Selznick
Aladdin Paperbacks
ISBN: 0689828683
Ages 8-12
138 pages
OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA
by Jennifer L. Holm
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0064408566
Ages 8-10
272 pages
May Amelia Jackson is 100% tomboy. She has an eye for adventure, a nose for trouble, and no problem finding it. Not to mention seven older brothers who seem to have so much more fun doing things that "Proper Ladies" would never do. Not that May Amelia worries about what "Proper Ladies" can and can't do. To the annoyance of her parents, May Amelia has no intention of being a "Proper Lady."
Told through the eyes of twelve-year-old May Amelia, the author, Jennifer L. Holm, shows what life might have been like back in the 1800s. The combination of being written in an old fashion dialect, with authentic looking pictures, makes OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA look and read like an autobiography instead of historical fiction. It is so convincing that you may find yourself looking for OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA in the non-fiction section . . . and you may even be successful in finding it there.
RAMONA'S WORLD
by Beverly Cleary
illustrated by Alan Tiegreen
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0380732726
Ages 9-12
208 pages
Ramona Quimby is sure fourth grade will be "the best year of her life, so far." She can show off her calluses from swinging on the rings in the park, sit across the aisle from the boy she calls Yard Ape, and enjoy her cheerful new teacher, Mrs. Meacham. Most exciting of all, Ramona has a new best friend, Daisy.
Fourth grade doesn't turn out quite the way Ramona has hoped. Mrs. Meacham wants her to improve her spelling. Ramona also must be a good role model for her baby sister, Roberta. And Mrs. Quimby wants her to spend more time with, the super-perfect Susan. Fourth-grade life isn't always easy, but it's full of adventure, and at the end of it all- a "zeroteenth" birthday to celebrate!
TUCKET'S GOLD
by Gary Paulsen
Yearling
ISBN: 0440413761
Ages 9-12
97 pages
ZOOMAN SAM
by Lois Lowry
illustrated by Diane De Groat
Yearling
ISBN: 0440416760
Ages 9-12
155 pages
